The book defines the concept of Semantic-Communicative Structure [= Sem-CommS]-a formal object that is imposed on the starting Semantic Structure [= SemS] of a sentence (under text synthesis) in order to turn the selected meaning into a linguistic message. The Sem-CommS is a system of eight logically independent oppositions: 1. Thematicity (Rheme vs. Theme), 2. Givenness (Given vs. Old), 3. Focalization (Focalized vs. Non-Focalized), 4. Perspective (Foregrounded vs. Backgrounded), 5. Emphasis (Emphasized vs. Non-Emphasized), 6. Presupposedness (Presupposed vs. Non-Presupposed), 7. Unitariness (Unitary vs. Articulated), 8. Locutionality (Communicated vs. Signaled). The values of these oppositions mark particular subnetworks of the starting SemS and thus allow for the distinction between sentences such as (a) A man killed a dog vs. The dog was killed by a man, (b) John washed the window vs. It was John who washed the window or (c) It hurts! vs. Ouch! The proposed Sem-Comm-oppositions are conceived as an attempt at sharpening the well-known notions of Topic ~ Comment, Focus, etc. Possible linguistic strategies for expressing the values of the Sem-Comm-oppositions in different languages are discussed at some length, with linguistic illustrations.

The Handbook of Natural Language Processing, Second Edition presents practical tools and techniques for implementing natural language processing in computer systems. Along with removing outdated material, this edition updates every chapter and expands the content to include emerging areas, such as sentiment analysis.New to the Second EditionGreater

Language—that is, oral or written content that references abstract concepts in subtle ways—is what sets us apart as a species, and in an age defined by such content, language has become both the fuel and the currency of our modern information society. This has posed a vexing new challenge for linguists and engineers working in the field of language-processing: how do we parse and process not just language itself, but language in vast, overwhelming quantities? Modern Computational Models of Semantic Discovery in Natural Language compiles and reviews the most prominent linguistic theories into a single source that serves as an essential reference for future solutions to one of the most important challenges of our age. This comprehensive publication benefits an audience of students and professionals, researchers, and practitioners of linguistics and language discovery. This book includes a comprehensive range of topics and chapters covering digital media, social interaction in online environments, text and data mining, language processing and translation, and contextual documentation, among others.

Dependencies – directed labeled graph structures representing hierarchical relations between morphemes, words, and semantic units – are the standard representation in many fields of computational linguistics. The linguistic significance of these structures often remains vague, however, and those working in the field stress the need for the development of a common notational and formal basis. Although dependency analysis has become quasi-hegemonic in Natural Language Processing (NLP), the connection between computational linguistics and dependency linguists remains sporadic. But theoretical dependency linguists and computational linguists have much to share. This book presents papers from the International Conference on Dependency Linguistics (Depling 2011) held in Barcelona, Spain, in September 2011. Beginning with what may be the first formal definition of dependency structure, the book continues with papers covering subjects such as: the interface of the syntactic structures with semantics; mapping semantic structures to text surface by means of statistical language generation; formalization of dependency; advances in dependency parsing; and the link between statistical and rule-based dependency parsing. This comprehensive collection gives a coherent overview of recent advances in the interplay of linguistics and natural language engineering around dependency grammars, ranging from definitional challenges of syntactic functions to formal grammars, tree bank development, and parsing issues

This collection provides a comprehensive overview of Russian language research in Canada and Russia, with a focus on elements of structure, as well as on language dynamics and change.